Celebrate our Nations Independence

 

If we all remember that we are Americans first and not a member of some political party….maybe just maybe we’ll all be around for the 4th Of July next year.

But until then, be safe…………and be sane.

Stories From The Fringe – ‘Virginia Funeral Home Introduces Drive-Thru Viewings’

 

‘Ever wished that you didn’t have to leave your car to view a loved one who has died’?
‘A Virginia funeral home, Farmville’s Oliver & Eggleston Funeral Establishment, is now offering drive-thru viewing services. The company is staying consistent with its motto: “Services That’s Distinctive–Experience The Difference.”
“It’s designed for people who have disabilities or…inclement weather,” President Carl Eggleston told WTVR.
”You can have a regular viewing in a regular room, and then at night, if we want to roll you over here, and put you in here, we can put the person in here.”
‘Other drive-thru funeral viewings are reportedly on offer in California, Chicago and Louisiana. But it’s thought that Oliver & Eggleston — which also provides horse-drawn hearses, as well as other unusual accommodations — is the first business to offer this service in the Old Dominion’.
“Somebody’s got to be the first one,” Eggleston told WTVR. “We just offer the families something different, so they have options.”From : http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/virginia-funeral-home-introduces-drive-thru-viewings/

A ‘Conservative’ vision for America – So Where Are The Jobs? – ‘REPORT: Corporations Pay Lower Tax Rates Than The Middle Class’

If corporations are the ‘job creators’ and Republicans keep telling us that all we have to do is cut taxes on business and THAT will create jobs…..then where are the jobs?

Longer term……………this more then our political infighting will destroy America.

The tax burden is slowly being shifted to the middle class, a middle class who’s wage increases are being stopped as they also lose benefits such as health care.

We are an economic ‘class’ society.

The wealthy and Corporations vs. the middle class and poor.

And as the wealthy and Corporations influence our politics more and more, they will cut safety net programs more and more – leaving the middle class and poor with low wages, fewer job benefits and fewer social safety net programs.

‘Large, profitable U.S. corporations actually paid just a 12.6 percent effective tax rate in 2010’.

‘That’s barely a third of the 35 percent corporate rate on the books, and it’s actually lower than the median effective tax rate for middle-class Americans’.

‘The number comes from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study intended to clarify the terms of debate as lawmakers weigh changes to the business tax code’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/02/2248801/report-corporations-pay-lower-tax-rates-than-the-middle-class/

Flawed ‘Health Care’ ends not with a bang….but a whimper…. – ‘ObamaCare employer mandate delayed until after 2014 midterms’

We should have gone for a single payer system. Medicare taken Nationally.

Instead we got Obamacare and now…..not even that until (maybe) 2015.

Is it better then what the Republicans offer which is nothing?

Yes.

But for all of the political capital it has cost, for all the bumbling on delivering and explaining the plan…..we should have gone for the actual solution…….not a band-aid.

Yoda said it best :

‘Delaying the requirement until 2015 is an enormous victory for businesses that had lobbied against the healthcare law’.

‘It also means that one of healthcare reform’s central requirements will be implemented after the 2014 midterm elections, when the GOP is likely to use the Affordable Care Act as a vehicle to attack vulnerable Democrats’.

‘In a White House blog post, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote that the administration believed it needed to give employers “more time to comply with the new rules.”
From : http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/309003-obamacares-employer-mandate-delayed

 

The Republican ‘War On Voting’ – ‘North Carolina Prepares To Suppress Black Voters, Now That The Voting Rights Act Lost Its Teeth’

‘Just days after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina is moving forward with a host of bills to roll back voting rights’.

‘Republican lawmakers are accelerating a new agenda to eliminate early voting, Sunday voting hours, and same-day registration provisions’.

‘GOP leaders also vowed to move quickly to pass a controversial voter ID law that would make it much harder for minorities, seniors, students, and low-income voters to cast their ballots’.

**’Require ID at the polls’.
‘North Carolina’s voter ID bill could pose problems for 1 in 10 voters, according to an analysis by the State Board of Elections. About 613,000 North Carolinians lack the required government-issued ID. Nearly a third of these voters are black, while over half are registered Democrats’.

**’Penalize college students for voting’.
‘Republicans are also pushing a bill to raise taxes on families with college students who choose to vote at school rather than at home, effectively discouraging college students from voting’.

**’End early voting and same-day registration’.
‘In North Carolina, black voters make up 29 percent of early voters and 34 percent of voters who took advantage of same-day voter registration at the polls’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/02/2244651/north-carolina-voter-suppression-voting-rights-act/

One Man’s Trash….. – ‘Sarah Palin’s ‘Libertarian Streak’ Doesn’t Impress Libertarian Party’

 

I actually wish she would go to or form a 3rd party and take the teabag fringe freaks with her so that the rest of us can have our Country back.

“[W]hile a few of Sarah Palin’s views are aligned with those of the Libertarian Party, her pro-interventionist foreign policy, her support of the 2008 Republican-led bailouts, her loyal support of Big Government Republicans, her social conservative agenda and her lack of concrete backing for any serious downsizing of Big Government runs afoul of the Libertarian Party’s goals and most Libertarians’ views,” the Libertarian Party’s executive director, Carla Howell, told U.S. News’.

“The Reform Party would probably have zero interest in Sarah Palin,” Reform Party Chairman David Collison told U.S. News. “The primary reason is that we are not really as closely aligned with the tea party as people would think.”

‘Collison said his party aspires to be viewed as centrist, and embraces activists affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement. “Palin would basically torpedo that,” he said’.
From : http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/07/01/sarah-palins-libertarian-streak-doesnt-impress-libertarian-party

‘WATCH: Mitch McConnell Releases One Of The Strangest Ads Ever’

‘One day after Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) announced her intention to run for U.S. Senate in 2014, incumbent Mitch McConnell (R-KY) welcomed her to the race with one of the most bizarre campaign videos in living memory’.

‘In a press release, McConnell’s campaign manager Jesse Benton said’ : “We, at Team Mitch, are nothing if not magnanimous, so decided to welcome her to the race with what we imagine her campaign theme song might be,” he continued. “The song highlights her signature initiative to ‘preserve, protect, and promote Alison Lundergan Grimes,’ and is entitled ‘What Rhymes with Alison Lundergan Grimes?’”

‘The bad acid trip of an ad is the latest in a series of efforts by the McConnell campaign to reach out to young voters. And while “What Rhymes with Alison Lundergan Grimes” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, at least it’s catchier — and slightly less embarrassing — than the Team Mitch Harlem Shake’:

From : http://www.nationalmemo.com/watch-mitch-mcconnell-releases-one-of-the-strangest-ads-ever/